In our final video covering Euro 2024, Adam Clery looks back over the tactical evolution of Gareth Southgate's side over the last 8 years. How he so quickly built the national team's first real identity in years, why they always went deep into tournaments before coming unstuck at the final hurdles, and why it's for the best that he's stepped aside now.
From the 2018 World Cup in Russia, to this year's final vs Spain, via the heartbreak against Italy... this is the story of England's greatest ever period of international football, and the man responsible for it.
From the 2018 World Cup in Russia, to this year's final vs Spain, via the heartbreak against Italy... this is the story of England's greatest ever period of international football, and the man responsible for it.
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00:00Hello everybody Adam Cleary and his broken hand here and yep the Euros coverage is done we're
00:09finished we're moving on it's all fun sexy exciting transfers now and how your club is going to play
00:14next season but just before we pack away all the Euros stuff I just want to talk about Gareth
00:22Southgate because eight years is a long old time to be the manager of any side never mind a national
00:27one and I've already seen loads of I can't do quotation marks with this hand but debate since
00:32he announced his retirement about whether or not he was good for England or whether or not he kind
00:37of held them back and I know what you're thinking you did so many videos over the Euros Adam should
00:41you not be on holiday with your girlfriend right now and yep great point but two small issues one
00:47can't really afford a holiday and two I don't have a girlfriend I have you lot so let's get into it
00:57first up and please do take a deep breath and a comfy seat for this this was the England 11 when
01:04they were knocked out against Iceland that time that that happened and I could I actually think
01:10just do an entire video on why that as a football team would never ever work like given that probably
01:16the best ever midfield in a 4-3-3 was Busquets Xavi and Iniesta what's what's supposed to happen here
01:24like Wayne Rooney's gonna want to be sort of like here and not there and Dele Alli's gonna want to be
01:29here and not there and Harry Kane of course he likes to drop off into there instead of there and then
01:34Sturridge and Sterling they both like to sort of be yeah there and and not there but not to worry
01:41though because centre-back Eric Dier is there so he'll he'll hold all that together so yes rather
01:47unsurprisingly this team plus Jamie Vardy who didn't really like playing for England and Adam Lallana who
01:52didn't know what he was doing playing for England and Jack Wilshere who hadn't played for anybody all
01:56season never mind England it got beat by Iceland and if you don't remember that let me just sort of
02:01frame it for you that was about as low as it has ever ever felt supporting England but don't worry
02:08though because just when things felt like they couldn't get any worse they hired Sam Allardyte and
02:12he was gonna tell this team what's what you're gonna get rid of all these underperforming stars
02:16and bring through this bright new generation of talent and this was his first 11. Now yes very
02:24well observed you have noticed that all has sort of changed there John Stones is in so that's nice
02:30and Jordan Henderson's adding a bit more control here but by and large that's still the same England
02:35side that isn't gonna do anything ever to anyone and you remember what happened next he got done in
02:41that sting operation I completely forget what it was about he was drinking that pint of wine he got made to
02:46leave the job because obviously that's incredibly embarrassing and having already turned to the
02:51Sunderland manager no offence Sunderland for the England job the FA were like what now what but not
02:59to unlike some sort of mawkish deeply cringe posse vibes insta account the FA instead turned inward to
03:06under 21's manager Gareth Southgate and the downside to this appointment was that his club management
03:11record was really bad and the FA were accused of having a jobs for the boys I still can't do that
03:17mentality but on the plus side it was just caretaker charge until they found somebody else and he was
03:23working with the under 21's so he was very familiar with a lot of the exciting players they expected to
03:28break through in the next few years but then something pretty strange started to happen right
03:33England didn't exactly set the world on fire during Southgate's temporary stint in charge they
03:38beat Malta and Scotland and drew with Spain and Slovenia but it was pretty clear in those games
03:44for the first time in years they had some sort of cohesive way of playing he decided to build
03:50everything around Harry Kane up front he gave debuts to Jordan Pickford to Harry Maguire to
03:54Kieran Trippier and heading into the 2018 World Cup nobody fancied England to do anything but at least
04:00we thought it probably wouldn't get embarrassed and if you remember they actually went to that 2018
04:05World Cup with a pretty bananas system you had Kyle Walker as this right-sided centre-back you had
04:11absolutely not a pivot player Jordan Henderson as the single pivot you had all the width coming from
04:17Ashley Young and Kieran Trippier they would bomb all the way down the flanks and then you had
04:21for reasons I cannot remember Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard just completely free as these sort of like
04:28half eight half tens and then Kane and Sterling more or less as a front two and I can't believe I'm
04:34saying this now but it made England almost overnight one of the best out of possession sides
04:39in world football they were so so solid and hard to break down like obviously one of the reasons for
04:46that is they've got a back five here with a very hard-working midfielder sitting in front of them
04:50but the main reason was just sort of how cohesive England were out of possession like when Kane and
04:57Sterling would press high which they did like to do the entire team would sort of shuffle up behind
05:01them compact the space and force the opposition to try and go long but when they sat off which
05:07they were more prone to do they would defend a lot deeper they would do that as a unit as well
05:11and force the opponent to just make mistakes like going back through England's numbers from that
05:16tournament is like genuinely a bit weird because they had like the lowest number of tackles per 90
05:22minutes of any team in the tournament they did the least amount of fighting to regain possession like
05:28Danny Rose was England's most frequent tackler of that entire tournament right and he ranks
05:34103rd overall and they also conceded one of the highest numbers of switches of play in that tournament
05:42which is just so indicative of a team defending deep and defending really well and the opposition just
05:47constantly lumping it from side to side trying to find a gap which of course they virtually never did
05:53and this is why it does kind of bug me a little bit to hear people talking about Southgate as like
05:58tactically limited or setting his teams up very naively because to go from the previous Euros where
06:04they had no structure no plan nothing to this in two years is genuinely incredible and I do think it
06:12was sort of in this system and this shape that kind of defined what Southgate was going to be
06:17as in the manager for the next three tournaments because they were set up so functionally and so
06:22dependably that it enabled just little bits of magic to happen in the final third with these more
06:28creative players now of course the thing is in Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard you've not got two players
06:33there who were going to go and dominate an international tournament they're not going to come up against
06:37some of the best teams in the world and basically take that game by the scruff of the neck so England
06:42did need to improve in terms of the quality they had on the pitch if that was ever going to be a viable
06:47option but what they had in this tournament that worked so well for them was two things first of all
06:52Harry Kane's level of is lethality a word like his chance conversion was so so good it meant that
06:59England were getting goals they probably shouldn't have otherwise have got and set pieces they were
07:04brilliant at like first off just on Kane he got six goals that tournament from just 11 shots and about
07:11like four xg which is incredible incredible chance conversion like it's second only to Cherchev the
07:18Russian center forward about whom's performance I will be casting precisely zero aspersions none
07:25in Stones, Maguire, Henderson and Kane you had four just brilliant options to attack the ball directly
07:31in Dele Alli you had someone who was great in the air but benefited from having clever movement in the
07:36box and in Trippier and Young you had two fantastic dead ball deliverers deliverers deliverers deliverers
07:43is a word isn't it delivery guys yeah and whether it was the fabled love train where all these players
07:48would split and run in different directions at the very last second or whatever the hell
07:52this David Blaine Uri Geller thing was that the Sterling should have scored from England were so lethal
07:59at set pieces and so solid at the back and if that makes them sound like a little bit two-dimensional
08:04or boring then they weren't really they just weren't a team that wasn't even going to try
08:08and play sort of fluid football through the middle of the pitch like England's actual passing numbers
08:14in that tournament were very high they had loads of the ball they moved it around really well but
08:18their progressive passing numbers which is the nice balls you want to play forwards that was
08:23comparatively very low they simply didn't have a player in that profile who could do that and that
08:28is why by the end of the tournament England's most frequent passes per 90 minutes were Walker
08:34and Stones and Maguire they would look to have settled safe possession at the back hopefully
08:39move the opposition around create running channels for the players forward and then just
08:44lump it and I know you definitely remember Kieran Trippi's free kick against Croatia but do you
08:49remember how England got that free kick like here they are they're having that controlled settled
08:53possession at the back it opens up a running channel for somebody further forward and Walker hoofs it
08:59all of a sudden England are up the other end of the pitch Lingard plays in Ali Modric fouls him and
09:04they get that chance on the edge of the box there's no attempt to play through Croatia to move them
09:08around in a particularly clever way that was just how they attack and while the shape is a little bit
09:13crazy this is still a pretty simple and effective way of playing like be difficult to break down in
09:18your own half and maximize your opportunities in the opposition's half but it does have one or two
09:23fairly major flaws to it like every system does but one in particular you are going to recognize
09:31because when England were defending they basically had to go into a back five that meant that if the
09:35opposition team had wide players who were capable of moving in field that would then really narrow
09:42England because it's a simple system nobody's being told to do anything that requires too much thought
09:47the wing backs they've got assigned players so if those players move so do they the problem you've got
09:53now is that you're asking to a to secretly dream of being tens to then cover into all this wide space here
10:01where the opposition full backs are now going to get in and thus the similarities between Croatia's
10:06equalizer in 2018 and more or less all of Spain's chances in 2024 are about as stark as Kit Harington
10:15Croatia's wide attacker has pulled Ashley Young really narrow with the rest of the fence leaving
10:19this huge hole on the opposite side of the pitch for Dele Alli to get out to but of course the switch
10:25of play means there is way too much ground to cover way too much space to close before Croatia get that
10:30cross in and uh you will not believe who Mandzukic gets ahead of there to steer that ball home and
10:38that is presented entirely entirely without comment but why am I focusing so much on 2018 now they got
10:47to the final of the next two euros that that whole thing with France at the next world cup what is it
10:52about this tournament that's so important well of all the major things that have been leveled at
10:57Southgate's management of England this game is pretty much where they all started right we got an easy
11:02route into the latter stages and as soon as we played a good team we got eliminated and most importantly
11:07when we took the lead we then sat back and just that second one in particular right I've wanted to say
11:14this for like five or six weeks now right this idea that England take the lead and then deliberately sit
11:19back and just try and hold on to it right is the biggest steaming pile of dog that floats around
11:28the generally accepted footballing consensus it's just not even slightly true in any major tournament
11:34game when England have taken the lead be that early or otherwise so you're talking like Croatia
11:39Italy Sweden Germany Denmark you name them right they have desperately wanted to push on and get a
11:47second goal but they are entirely incapable of doing that I mentioned progressive passing right in the
11:542018 world cup was one of the things England weren't particularly good at and one of the reasons why
11:59they try to be defensively very compact and then direct moving up the pitch right they're not good
12:04a little interchanges of play and then moving it through a press this is where England ranked for
12:09it at the 2018 world cup this is where they ranked for it at the euros in 2021 and this is where they
12:15ranked for it at the euros in 2024 and while the caliber of player that England now have available
12:21to them is drastically different from what it was in 2018 like you've gone from like that to moving
12:28these around too much that to this in the space of like half a generation of players the one thing they
12:34still don't have here is somebody who can play that type of football the fundamental difference with
12:40international football is it doesn't matter who you're playing no team is ever going to sit back
12:45and go oh one nil or two nils not so bad maybe we might nick a point at the end of it whenever you
12:50take the lead no matter who you're playing you force them to push forward to come onto you to try and get
12:57a goal back in every single tournament under Gareth Southgate's manager no matter who the players were
13:02the more you would squeeze them the more you would press them into their own half the more they would
13:06struggle because they just never had the sort of profile of midfielder specifically who will receive
13:12that ball under a lot of pressure can get turned can go past one or two players and can move them up
13:17the pitch by the time of the next euro Southgate had evolved this side to be a lot better on the ball
13:23but also one of the most sort of tactically adaptable adaptable teams in the entire tournament
13:28but they'd reverted to a back four to get the running up the lines from Shaw and Walker they now had
13:33Rice and Phillips in the middle which while again not able to play through a press or fixing that
13:38particular problem was still a really good mix of like on the ball ability driving from deep but also
13:43defensive solidity you had Mason Mount here who was capable of dropping back to make it a three or
13:48leading the press with Harry Kane when they didn't have the ball and when they did have the ball he
13:52would float out to the left hand side to allow Sterling to basically play as a second striker it was a
13:57really really good system but then and precisely because they still haven't got that sort of profile of
14:02midfielder when they came up against the better teams where they knew they weren't going to dominate
14:06the ball they would revert back to the three or five at the back against Germany and Italy they
14:11lined up this way so they could be really solid and compact with these five here still get width
14:16from Shaw and in this case Trippier and then Mount was sort of free to sort of get around and press
14:21as needs be and Sterling could go and support Harry Kane and when it comes to the final of Euro 2020
14:272021 whatever you want to call it right it's important to remember that two things can be
14:32true at the same time like on the one hand it is absolutely true that Southgate did not use his
14:38bench effectively the Italians probably couldn't believe their luck that certain players were being
14:42brought onto the field at certain times but also it is true that England did not just sit back
14:49and try and protect a one-goal lead Italy suffocated them and I'm not entirely sure if this is going to
14:55work but I'll just I'll just try and show you what I mean right these are all the locations after that
15:01goal against Italy right that England successfully made a pass from and what I'm hoping should be
15:07apparent from this is just this sort of like thin spot in the deep central area of their own half
15:13like that is where the bulk of them should be that should be the first place you're able to get a
15:17player on the ball and then go wide or go long or go direct or whatever but England really could not get
15:23into that area that's because after they scored the goal Italy really put the squeeze on and forced
15:28them back into their own half and because they couldn't play through that kind of pressure they
15:32were constantly forced to go long into it but of course it just came back as Kane was up against
15:37two centre-backs or they went out wide where of course players were then receiving it facing back
15:41towards their own goal so they had to come back the exact same way like England did not sit back or play
15:47negative they just could not get up the pitch and also as well do you know what really really winds me up
15:52right people who will look you dead in the eye and talk to you about that game oh England did this
15:57and England did that and they played this way and they played that way right you don't remember
16:01nobody remembers that night do you have any idea how drunk this country was watching that game of
16:08football anyone who tells you that's how that game happened right it wasn't an awful nerd like me
16:13who's been back and watched it they are talking absolute wham but again just like 2018 Gareth Southgate
16:20had built a team that was capable of going deep into a tournament on the basis of a solid defensive
16:26foundation because they're incapable of playing through heavy pressure he knows they're not going to
16:31dominate games but then in 2022 I think Southgate got as close to cracking this formula as he ever did
16:39this is the 11 that started that quarterfinal against France and again it was another hard look
16:43tale of England getting beat off the first I'm gonna stop trying that now good team they came
16:48across but they were honestly so much better than France were in that match still couldn't really
16:53play through like an intense high press but France had like Giroud and Mbappe and Griezmann and Dembele
16:59on the pitch so they were never going to squeeze them all that hard and with this combination of like
17:04Maguire left centre-back Bellingham left central midfielder they could progress the ball through this
17:09channel brilliantly and that is because by the way for all Maguire basically became this figure of
17:14fun and defined a lot of the criticisms about Gareth Southgate he was the absolute perfect centre-back
17:20for this system he loved to carry the ball forward he could go past a man and if anybody did get a bit
17:25of pressure onto him he then had a range of passing he could find whoever became free as a result and
17:29you combine that with the kind of player Jude Bellingham was two years ago where he wasn't really an out
17:34now goal threat but he certainly wasn't a six he loved to sort of float around in this eight space
17:38either go wide to allow players to come inside or pick the ball up off the defenders it was perfectly
17:44almost well balanced and they were honestly people don't believe me they were miles better than France
17:49in this game like they dominated the ball they had way more possession they had way more attempts on
17:53goal and if it wasn't for like a 35 yard shit pinger and Harry Kane missing a penalty they probably
18:00would have won that quite comfortably but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have titled this video in two parts
18:04like why Gareth Southgate was brilliant but also why it was absolutely time for him to sling his hook
18:10and thus ends the part where I explain why he deserved more respect because now it's why I absolutely
18:17had to leave England under Gareth Southgate was always a side that wanted to be very disciplined
18:22and very structured at the back but quite free form and quite creative going forward because that
18:28is how underdogs play no matter what you may have thought of England's performance at the previous
18:34European championships they wanted to give away very few attempts on goal which they did they're
18:39one of the best teams in the tournament for limiting the opponent's chances and they wanted
18:43their really creative special players to be able to do really creative special things which they may
18:49have left it late they may not have done it as much as you wanted to but they did do it and the reason
18:53that is an enormous problem for Gareth Southgate is that the profile and the stature and the reputation
18:59of the options now available to England has changed so dramatically it's not enough to have an underdog
19:07spirit and just look at the stature of the attacking players England had available in that final like
19:12say what you want about Harry Kane but he's still proven this season he is one of Europe's most lethal
19:17centre forwards he was the best player in Germany everybody joked you had Phil Foden he was the best player in
19:22the Premier League you had Jude Bellingham who was the best player in La Liga Bakayo Saka who you can
19:27make the argument for being the best player in the Premier League Declan Rice who you can make the
19:30argument for being the best player in the Premier League Kobi Meynu who you can make the argument for
19:34being the best young player in the Premier League like it is not enough to simply have these set up
19:40to be solid and to be disciplined and just hope something happens there was a moment in that final
19:46which was not broadcast on television but 4-4-2 have the footage of because we found it somewhere
19:51where Jude Bellingham goes absolutely ack a pot with Southgate because they again cannot get out
19:58with their own half they're defending deep they're scrapping to win it back which they do but there
20:02is no pass out of their own third so Spain immediately get it back and should probably
20:06score from that situation and the reality is none of the attacking players probably none of the players
20:12full stop who are going to be playing for England in the next two or three years are ever going to be
20:17used to having to do that now I me personally do think that whoever the next England manager is
20:23they're still going to have this huge problem of not having the right kind of player in the middle
20:27of the pitch to play through heavy pressure and that will probably forever hold England back
20:32until they start to address that but the reality is the attacking players they have available to them
20:39now the players of the scope and the stature and the fame and the credibility and all of that right
20:43this is an England side that should probably be losing 4-3 than trying to win 1-0 if that makes
20:52sense like I just put it this way right without that kind of player England are never going to
20:57dominate tournaments the way that like Spain have or France have or Germany have or Argentina have or
21:01anything like that right so they might as well just constantly be going for it and Gareth Southgate's
21:08not that kind of manager but the thing is right and I hope this does come across in the tone of the
21:13video right if you are looking at this side and thinking do you know what it is give him his credit
21:18give him his due for what he did leading up to this tournament but it's pretty clear that the talent
21:22available has now outgrown the manager well Gareth Southgate is as instrumental in developing that talent
21:29as anybody we didn't even get into it in this video but the whole England DNA project that he helped
21:35pioneer along with Dan Ashworth and people at the FA is the reason why England now have this absolute
21:41unbelievable embarrassment of technical talent at the far end of the pitch like so many of these
21:47players have come through from junior levels through the under 17s under 21s and now have gone from giving
21:53you an England side you just hoped didn't embarrass you in the summer to one that you feel so strongly
21:59should win things and I do hope I've got like the tone and the balance right in this video because I
22:04honestly earnestly believe that Gareth Southgate deserves way more respect than he gets for his
22:10time as England manager and these sort of accusations of being like tactically limited or very negative and
22:15defensive are a not even really true and b when they are not really something you can do anything
22:21about but at the same time I personally would have replaced him after the 2022 World Cup because
22:27the way this side was evolving that sort of incoherent sort of unbalanced type of performance
22:32was kind of inevitable like if you imagine them as works of art England have got attacking options
22:39that were drawn by Leonardo da Vinci but like a build-up structure that was drawn by Leonardo DiCaprio
22:47girlfriend because she'd be like she'd be really young wouldn't she and like kids can't kids are bad
22:55kids are bad at drawing that's the gag but yes as ever my dearest dearest friends please let me know
23:00what you think of all of this of Gareth Southgate's time in charge is he getting the credit he deserves
23:04has he ultimately held them back have you not listened to a bloody word I've said please let me know in
23:09the comments below and if you're too good for that get me on all the social medias at Adam Cleary
23:12uh C-L-E-R-Y and also god I know if I've got to tell you please do subscribe to us here on the 442
23:19the amount of new subs we've had over the like euros and stuff has been absolutely insane and hopefully
23:24hopefully that'll let us do loads of amazing stuff for your club specifically but that's it that's
23:30pretty much everything isn't it uh oh oh this oh yes of course uh this uh it's it was a boking accident
23:38goodbye